LOCALS have blasted the results of recent traffic surveys on a number of speeding ‘hotspots’ in the town, which have returned results that advise ‘no further action’ is needed.
Eight speeding surveys were carried out by Wiltshire Council, at the request of the town council, across Melksham last year in Spa Road, Church Lane, Forest Road, Lowbourne (South of Ruskin Avenue), Queensway, Skylark Road, Coronation Road, and Pembroke Road.
Of the eight roads, only two – Coronation Road and Pembroke Road – were considered serious enough to warrant further action. All other results were deemed by Wiltshire Council to show that ‘no further action’ was required.
Deputy Mayor, cllr Colin Goodhind told Melksham News, “Despite what the surveys say, there are a minority of drivers that simply drive too fast. Most drivers do abide by the speed limit but anyone walking in town, knows there is a problem.
“If Wiltshire Council say no further action is needed then their survey needs to be looked at. We as a town councillor really need to look at what we can do because it is a big problem.”
Wiltshire Council say that ‘no further action’ is needed if the 85 cars out of 100 are within the speed limit, what is known as the ‘85th percentile’.
In Lowbourne, 65,000 cars use the road on average each week, over 9,000 a day; 46,000 cars use Spa Road every week (6,500 daily) and over 31,000 use Queensway weekly (4,000+ daily).
The Wiltshire Council results show hundreds of cars are speeding along these roads every day but the council say no action is deemed necessary.
Only Coronation Road and Pembroke Road were found to qualify for a Community Speed Watch scheme – a volunteer scheme that gives local people the power to help reduce traffic speeds. Motorists caught speeding by speed watch volunteers are sent warning letters from the police.
Locals have queried the results. One Church Lane resident told Melksham News, “The [metro count] cables were installed in an area where there are no parking restrictions, so there are always cars parked on one side. This leads to a chicane, with moving cars having to stop in one direction to give way to cars coming from the other direction.
“This would give a result of much slower cars as they have to accelerate from stop.
“As regards ‘no further action required’, has there EVER been an instance where action is required? I can’t think of a road in Melksham that has been changed as a result of metro count readings. The metro counts are a legal obligation on the part of Wiltshire Council, it’s purely a box ticking exercise.”
“No further action my foot!” added another resident. “I too wonder how they came to that conclusion. They don’t have a clue! I suppose they are looking for fatalities to make it count!”
“Constant speeding on Spa Road,” said one local. “I hear them tearing up and down Spa Road all times of the day and night. They never even slow down on approach to the roundabout.”
About Forest Road, one resident said, “Forest Road is a walking route to the primary school, and is clearly signed as 20mph. This is ignored by drivers using it as a rat-run. Also, as I understand it, the police will not enforce the 20mph limit.”
“Queensway is an absolute joke,” added another local. “I get picked up in the early morning and my driver sticks to the speed limit, but the car is being over taken by other drivers, sounds most of the time on the road it’s like a rat race!”
About the results for Lowbourne, one local said, “When they say ‘Lowbourne (south of Ruskin Avenue)’ that’s Ruskin towards town, not likely to get much speeding there, the speeding is done from Ruskin to the two mini roundabouts.”
At a recent town council meeting, cllr Goodhind queried how Church Lane requires ‘no further action’ when residents have experienced a number of ongoing problems as a result of speeding, including a speeding vehicle that crashed into a property in 2019.
He also criticised the location of the Spa Road survey, which was positioned between the Spa Road/Spa Close mini-roundabout and the Wharf Court retirement home.
However, in the meeting held last month, fellow councillor Gary Cooke said, “These are the results – we can’t go against them.”
Cllr Goodhind has stated, “I find it hard to believe that we are just going to accept these results.”
When questioned by Melksham News about the selection of locations for the speeding monitors, cllr Dr Mark McClelland said, “The location of traffic counts on the identified road are specified by the person or organisation that has submitted the survey request form. In this case the locations for the counts was specified by Melksham Town Council.
“We will always try to place the counter in the location requested, but if this is not possible, we go back to the requester with an alternative.”
A spokesperson for the town council said, “The speeding surveys in question were applied for in early 2020, just days before Covid-19 slowed projects such as this down. In some cases, such as with Forest Road, by the time the survey was underway, it coincided with roadworks taking place.
“The town council has been advised by Wiltshire Council that, in view of this, they accept that the survey results would not have been a true reflection of traffic volumes and speeds at the time of the survey.
“Wiltshire Council has agreed to repeat the traffic survey on Forest Road this month before the start of school half-term and that reassurances will be sought to ensure that the necessary checks are made with regards to any planned roadworks.
“It is important to understand that it is very difficult to find the ‘right’ or ‘ideal’ spot for a survey to take place on our busy, part-residential streets, and that surveys cannot be undertaken where there are opportunities for slower vehicles to enter or exit the road under review, such as the area between the Warwick Crescent junction and the Queensway junction on Spa Road, as this would impact the gathered statistics.
“Having said this, officers will review each location used in the surveys to ensure no obvious errors were made.”
